About Me

I'm proud to be a working mom, with two terrific kids (ages 8 and 11). I got my Ph.D. in applied psychology back in 2000. We moved to upstate NY from Philadelphia in 2006, and I'm now working as a researcher at SUNY Upstate Medical University. I'm a knee-jerk liberal, though I grew up in very red-state Arizona. I'm passionate about movies and politics. Sadly, I've now spent over a DECADE eating gluten-free, so I'm always on the lookout for great gluten-free foods.

Monday, April 11, 2011

France burqa ban goes into effect

I found myself thinking quite a bit about this story, after I heard it on NPR. Their rationale is that the burqa oppresses women by definition and creates separation between cultures. My first thought was that this could never happen in America - we just don't tolerate the government telling people how to express their religious beliefs (as it should be). But I also thought that it's fair for them to say, "this isn't 'France'" - to say, in essence, if you want to live this way, you have to do it somewhere else. Among the argument against the ban is that it violates the rights of Muslim women, stigmatizes Muslims and is a thinly veiled attack on Muslims (pun intended). Ironically, I think lots of Americans would like it very much if we could have this law in America (at least regarding burqas) - even though we don't want the government to impose rules on us, we seem to desire the government to impose rules on people we're not comfortable with.